As Jesus Sends The
Twelve Apostles, He reveals truth that still applies today, dismisses common Christian myths or misunderstandings and proves them
wrong.

Jesus Sends The
Twelve Apostles

Ever wondered why there were so many conflicting
views on life as a follower of Jesus? One says all Christians should be rich,
another says we should all be living with our faces in the mud, letting people
walk all over us. It's hard to know what's the truth. Ever wondered what was the
truth, and what was just myth? Usually, when we're in doubt it's because,
instead of checking the Word to see what God says, we live in "the gospel of my
opinion". Worse than that is when, being too lazy to form an opinion of our own,
we simply regurgitate whatever we've heard a "name-brand" preacher say. After
all, they know what they're talking about, right? I praise God that He led me to
read through the Bible, myself, before I returned to the church and started
listening to preachers, again. That got me on to serious Bible study, especially
every time I heard someone say something that isn't in there.

Don't get me wrong! My understanding isn't perfect. I say as many stupid
things as the next person. That's why you need to be studying for yourself.
Here's the deal; if we're not studying God's Word for ourselves, we're inviting
the devil to play mind games on us. We open ourselves up to deception by false
concepts from our past, or by false teachers in our present. I wish I could tell
you the sad stories of people I know who are this moment enslaved to some
falsehood that turns the Gospel of Jesus upside down. Who enslaved them? They
did; by not checking what their minister was teaching with the rest of God's
Word and by not making a regular diet of God's Word in their lives. Ever had
someone say, "I want to hear God's voice." And then find out they didn't even
spend 10 minutes a day reading what He's already said? Why should He give us a
new Word if we're not interested in the current Word? We can't even know if what
we're hearing is from God unless we study His written Word. Once you're
studying His Word, you can get a better perspective from these
books on the Twelve Apostles.

Today's passage includes statements from Jesus that completely refute four
myths being widely taught and accepted among Christians, today. If we seem to
hit something you've accepted, I want to challenge you, if you start feeling
angry, just stop, take a breath and pray for the Lord to lead you to the truth
of His Word. If you want to discuss it further, use the "talk back" hyperlink.
I'll be happy to hear from you, especially if you can use the Bible to correct
me. As a Servant of God, one of my most difficult jobs is to protect His Church
from the winds of false doctrine. Please begin by reading Mt 10, entirely. All
we're going to do is review the myths and a few Scriptures that contradict the
myths. I pray this challenges you to be more skeptical about what you hear, like
the Bereans, who were considered nobler because they checked the Scriptures
daily to verify Paul's teaching (Ac 17:11)

Myth 1: Bad things happen to us because we've
turned away from God. You can't spend much time in Christian circles before
running into this one. Some apply it personally, suggesting that a chronic
ailment, birth defect or premature death is due to the "sin" in their life or
that of a close relative. If you've ever been sick around people who believe
this, you know just how heartless religious people can be. Others apply it more
generally, like, to our country, suggesting that some nationally accepted "sin"
causes God to remove His hand of protection and allow things like the WTC attack
to "punish" us. What makes this bunk easy to swallow is it contains a partial
truth; generally, sickness and death are a result of sin having entered the
world. That's as close as you can get with it, though. Listen to the things in
our passage that Jesus says will happen to His most dedicated followers:
"They will…flog you…arrest you…betray…put to death…All men will hate you…"
Vs 17-22 Even a child will tell you we're expected to take up our cross, deny
ourselves, and follow Him. Jesus said, "…your
Father…sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Mt 5:45 Jesus
predicted horrible things to happen to His followers throughout history. It
doesn't take much New Testament reading to conclude that bad things happen to us
because we turn to God, but God will sustain us even if we die from them. (see
Mt 10:39)

Web-Church News!

Bio: Glen Williams
is Founder of E-Home Fellowship, Co. (EHF) and Webmaster for
http://www.web-church.com He has
been helping people professionally since 1987 and a minister since 1991.
He began web ministry in 2001. Now, every month, people in over 140
countries come to EHF websites for help with their problems.

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